


Chasing the Past

by BatmanWhoLaughss



Series: Remembrance [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:15:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24094180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatmanWhoLaughss/pseuds/BatmanWhoLaughss
Summary: “You… you look like him.” The voice was quiet, almost awestruck, and Luke turned, startled. With his lightsaber in hand, he took a defensive position, stepping back and taking in the newcomer.Standing before him and watching him with a warm, thoughtful expression, was a tall woman in a white cloak-- a Togruta, he realized. Her blue eyes were trained on him intensely, but as she slowly pulled back her hood, he saw she was smiling softly. She carried twin sabers at her waist, Luke realized with a jolt, and as he watched her warily, he felt… calmed, somehow. There was a sense of familiarity about her—he could feel it in the Force. It was like he… knew her somehow, even though he’d never seen this woman before.It was unnerving.
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker & Luke Skywalker, Luke Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader
Series: Remembrance [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760404
Comments: 34
Kudos: 517





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Been wanting to write this for a while. I really like the idea of Luke being desperate to learn about what his father was really like, and who better to tell him than Ashoka? Shout out to HunterByDayWhovianByNight for helping out with edits. Let me know what you guys think!

The heat hit Luke full in the face the second he stepped off his ship, the bright light of Mustafar’s lava forcing him to squint. It was a far cry from Coruscant, that was for sure, but despite the heat, Luke felt a chill run through him as he stared up at the last stop of his journey.

The past two years had been hard. The collapse of the Empire made him the poster boy for both the Rebellion and the New Republic. He’d been forced to assist Leia in rooting out the remnants of Imperial power. The fallout weighed heavily on his mind for a long time, along with the seemingly impossible task of carrying on the Jedi legacy. With the Empire gone, there were so many options, and everyone seemed to _want_ something from him all the time.

He finally took off in an X Wing about six months prior, telling his sister that he needed some time to himself. Maybe it was something in his face, but Leia didn’t push him too much. Just told him to be safe, and come back soon.

He had a more important task at hand.

He stared at the beat-up old notebook in his hand. The journal had been one of the only items left to him by Ben Kenobi. Ben’s notes detailed a life before the Empire—a life of war, heroics, friendships, the Jedi Order... Most of the journal described his father, Ben’s attempts to train him as a Jedi and their adventures fighting together as partners.

He’d been enthralled by Kenobi’s notes. He became consumed by a desire to understand more about the man his father was, and the world he lived in. He hopped from planet to planet for a few galactic standard months, desperately looking for a trail. He’d started the search on Coruscant, visiting the Imperial temple and the apartment his mother and father used to share, but there was no trace of the Jedi or of Anakin and Padme Skywalker anywhere.

Naboo proved to be more productive. He read about his mother in the planetary records; her time as queen, and her deeds as senator were well-recorded on her home world. The only information on his father was that which detailed a battle in 32 BBY. A small boy from Tatooine assisted the Naboo fighter pilots in destroying the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo, and liberating the planet. _Seems like piloting skills run in the family._

The more he learned about his parents, and the world that they played such a large role in, the more Luke was driven to keep searching. He read Ben’s account of his father’s turn to the Dark Side, how the desire to keep his mother safe led to trusting the Emperor… but he needed more. He needed every piece of information he could find about the war hero Anakin Skywalker was, rather than the fallen Jedi he’d become.

Luke stared up at the tall, black structure that loomed before him. He’d discovered the location of Vader’s fortress hidden in the Imperial Temple, but the discovery did nothing to prepare him for the monstrous castle that loomed before him. Trepidation dogged his steps; what would he find inside his father’s home? Would Vader have kept personal records of his life before the Empire? The obsidian doors seemed to beckon invitingly, but even as he made his way inside the castle, he was wary of what he might find.

He wandered into the enormous antechamber, staring up in awe. The structure was magnificent, there was no denying that, but Luke could feel the dark energy of this place surrounding him. The Dark side had a strong presence on this planet, and Luke felt it almost as strongly as he did when he came face to face with the Emperor on the Death Star.

Luke spent a few minutes taking in the enormity of his father’s home, and steeling himself against the Dark ripples in the Force, before he continued forward. He had a feeling, a notion deep inside that _this was the place._ Here, he would _finally_ find the thing he was missing, something with his father’s personal touch that would make everything he’d learned seem _real,_ somehow. All of the records he’d seen and all of Obi Wan’s notes still felt like they were lacking something. He hoped that here he would find something that made him feel a real, tangible connection to the man who had been his father.

As he walked through the castle, he became aware of another ripple in the Force, and a prickling feeling along the back of his neck. Something felt out of place; he stopped walking, listening for anything out of the ordinary. _Is there some sort of trap in this castle? A defense system?_

“You… you look like him.” The voice was quiet, almost awestruck, and Luke turned, startled. With his lightsaber in hand, he took a defensive position, stepping back and taking in the newcomer.

Standing before him and watching him with a warm, thoughtful expression, was a tall woman in a white cloak-- a Togruta, he realized. Her blue eyes were trained on him intensely, but as she slowly pulled back her hood, he saw she was smiling softly. She carried twin sabers at her waist, Luke realized with a jolt, and as he watched her warily, he felt… calmed, somehow. There was a sense of familiarity about her—he could feel it in the Force. It was like he… knew her somehow, even though he’d never seen this woman before. 

It was unnerving.

\------- 

Ahsoka watched the boy wander into the castle slowly, feeling odd mixture of warmth and cold as she stared. She looked at this boy, the hero of the Rebellion and the spitting image of the master she once knew, and felt her stomach churn as memories came flooding back. She remembered Anakin’s smirk as he dispatched droid after droid with ease on the front lines, his smile as he complimented her saber technique, and the steely, determined look in his eye when he was in command. She was prepared for the rush of emotion she would feel when she finally met Anakin’s son, but as she stared into the blue eyes he’d inherited from his father, Ahsoka wondered whether this was really a good idea.

After Lothal, Ahsoka laid low for a while. She was consumed by grief, heartbroken to discover that Anakin had fallen to the Dark side. After believing him dead for so long, discovering that what happened to him after the end of the Clone Wars was infinitely worse was… hard, to say the least. She spent so long putting her master’s death, and those of the rest of the Jedi, behind her. When she found out that Anakin was alive, _twisted_ under that black mask, she struggled to let go of the sadness she felt for her master.

When word spread about the Emperor’s death, and the death of Lord Vader, Ahsoka felt a twinge of sadness along with overwhelming relief. On some level, she knew that Anakin would have to die in order for the Empire to fall, but she couldn’t bring herself to be happy that Vader was dead. Even after all the terrible things he did for the Empire, part of her remembered the cocky, confident, kindhearted friend she’d once known.

Then, word started spreading about how the Empire fell, and the first time Ahsoka heard the name Skywalker on a news broadcast, she nearly fell over. She’d jumped up and ran to the holoprojector in the dive she’d been hanging out in, her heart in her throat as she listened for any possibility that Anakin could be alive.

What she’d seen instead shocked her to the core. A boy named Luke Skywalker who shared Anakin’s blue eyes led a rebel attack on the Death Star, and… they were calling him a Jedi. A _Jedi._ Finding out that Anakin had a _son_ was strange enough, but a Jedi? They died _years_ ago. The broadcast didn’t really know what to make of the word, but Ahsoka knew better.

She made it her mission to track the boy down. Maybe she was clinging onto a relic of the past, and meeting the boy wouldn’t amount to anything. Maybe he wasn’t the Jedi he claimed to be. But Force knows, she still missed the older brother she grew up with, and any surviving remnant of Anakin Skywalker was something she would go to the ends of the galaxy to find.

It took a _long_ time, but eventually she tracked him to Mustafar, and when she got off the ship, she knew why he’d come here. Vader had to be tied to this place somehow—she could feel his presence everywhere, and there were even traces of Anakin peeking through here and there. She’d almost forgotten what his presence felt like.

She spoke softly, almost as if she couldn’t help herself, as he stopped at the end of the castle antechamber. She watched the boy jump back, startled, and just stared. She’d seen his face before, on newsreels, but something about seeing Anakin’s flesh and blood standing in front of her felt different. Part of her hadn’t even dared to hope that the boy was _real,_ let alone that she’d actually track him down. She smiled, almost unaware that she was doing it- Luke’s determined look as he tensed up for a fight was almost identical to the one she’d seen on his father’s face countless times.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Ahsoka held her hands up in front of her, palms out, trying to show him that she didn’t mean any harm. The boy seemed to relax imperceptibly, though he still watched her with wary eyes.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Luke Skywalker spoke with a firm voice, but one that betrayed the compassion of a Jedi nonetheless. The voice, coupled with the lightsaber he held in his hand gave Ahsoka hope that he might very well be the Jedi the reports claimed. The Force surrounded him like an impenetrable aura; whatever he may be, the Force was stronger in him than almost anyone she’d ever encountered. Anyone except perhaps his father.

“You’re Luke Skywalker,” she said, instead of answering his question. “I’ve heard a lot about you over the past few months. You helped bring down the Empire.”

“Have you come to arrest me?” He laughed, a smile beginning to spread across his face.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. “No,” she muttered. “I’m a friend.”

“A friend, huh?” He gestured towards her lightsabers. “Who are you? And where did you get those?”

Ahsoka lowered her arms, her eyes shining with all the emotions swirling around in her head. “My name is Ahsoka Tano. I… knew your father, Anakin Skywalker.”

\-----

Luke’s jaw dropped. He would have been more shocked if she said she was an Imperial, a successor of Vader who’d come to kill him and avenge his death. “My… you knew my father? My _real_ father?” He didn’t think there was anyone alive who knew his father from before he donned Vader’s black helmet. “How?”

Ahsoka smiled again. “He was my master. I was a Padawan learner at the time of the Clone Wars. Anakin Skywalker trained me.”

“You were his student?” The gears were turning inside his head. There was something… something at the edge of his brain. “Wait. Ben’s notes… I remember you! He mentioned Anakin training an apprentice during the Clone Wars.” He recalled Kenobi’s journal. Ben described Anakin and his apprentice as an inseparable team, as sharing a bond that few teachers shared with their students. The journal talked at length about her, but Luke had assumed she was long dead, until now. “That was _you?_ ”

“Ben?” Ahsoka looked confused.

“Ben Kenobi. He gave me his journal when he died.”

Her eyes lit up at the mention of Kenobi’s name. “Obi-Wan…” Her tone was almost wistful. “Yes. Your father and I fought side by side during the Clone Wars. He was the greatest Jedi I ever knew, and even after everything that happened to him, everything he did… I was still sorry to learn of his death.” Her eyes were sad as she glanced up at him again.

Luke sighed, returning his saber to its resting place at his waist and running a hand through his hair. “Thank you.” Something she said made him pause, though. “Everything he did… So, you knew? You knew about Darth Vader?”

“Yes.” Ahsoka’s voice was heavy. “I encountered him once, after the end of the war. I didn’t believe it at first, but once I saw it with my own eyes, I didn’t have a choice.”

Luke could sense Ahsoka’s grief, coupled with something deeper. _Regret? Remorse?_ She needed to know. “He… he did the right thing, at the very end.” Ahsoka glanced up in surprise.

“What do you mean?”

Luke kept going, a small smile on his face. “On the Death Star, the Emperor made us fight. I nearly _killed_ Vader, with Palpatine egging me on, trying to turn me to the Dark side. I wouldn’t kill him though, even after everything. I couldn’t. The Emperor tortured me… would have killed me if Anakin hadn’t stepped in. He saved my life—threw the Emperor over the edge of a cliff.” He could see Ahsoka watching him with a mix of shock and pride on her face. “He saw the Light again, even after all those years in the Dark.” He could feel tears welling in his eyes, as they always did when he thought about that day on the Death Star. “He died as Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader.”

He could see with a jolt that Ahsoka had tears in her eyes as well. “That sounds like the Anakin I knew. He was always willing to help others, no matter what. Especially those he cared about.”

Luke blinked the tears away. Ahsoka talked about Anakin with a kind of reverence he’d only heard when Leia talked about her father, or when Ben talked about Master Yoda. Something about her made him feel calm, like she was the only person that would ever really understand his desire to be closer to the father he’d never known. “I wish I could have known him, in the old days.” He didn’t know where the words came from, but he felt the truth of them in his core.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see Ahsoka watching him with a sad smile. “He was like a brother to me. After he turned… I always missed being able to turn to him when I needed someone to talk to.”

\------

Ahsoka continued “I’ve been looking for you for a while. When I heard the news about the young rebel named Skywalker who toppled an Empire, I had to meet you for myself. The Force surrounds you, Luke—you have the strength and compassion of the greatest of the Jedi. And I _know_ your father would be proud of you.”

She watched his face turn from soft surprise to something akin to awe. She could tell part of him didn’t believe her, but he smiled, glancing at the floor as his face turned a slight shade of pink. After a minute, he gestured towards her sabers. “How… are you a Jedi? Yoda said I was the last…”

Ahsoka sighed. “I was a Jedi, in the old days. I walked away from the Order a little while before the end of the war. I survived on my own, afterwards, with only a few friends to guide me. And now… I wield the Force, but I’m not a Jedi anymore. Not like you.” She smiled at him. For this boy was a true Jedi—she could see that. The Force surrounded him, a beacon of Light in this Dark place.

Luke glanced up around them. “I… I came here for answers. I’ve been searching the galaxy, looking for any information I can find about my father. There’s so much I want to… no, _need to_ ask you--”

She cut him off gently. “I know. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I’ve been eager to get to know you as well. Sounds like we have plenty to discuss.”

He glanced at the doors in front of them. “There’s traces of Vader here—I can feel it.”

“I can as well.” She held out her hand. “Shall we?”

He grasped her right arm in his left, and she let out a loud laugh that echoed through the stone halls. At his confused look, she explained. “Your father had the same metal hand. That’s just strange.”

Luke laughed as well, before dropping his arm. They ignited their sabers, his green one a stark contrast to her white, and together they ventured further into Vader’s fortress, intent on unraveling the mysteries of the past.

\------

At the front of the castle, unbeknownst to either of them, a shimmering presence watched them with a smile on his face. Contentment radiated from him, and as a single tear fell from his piercing blue eyes, he felt as if the universe had shifted slightly back into place. After _years_ , the girl that had been his little sister would find peace, and the boy who liberated the galaxy would find a new mentor—the best he could ask for. He would find the truth he sought and then some.

The Force rippled, and as Anakin Skywalker faded away from this Dark place, he felt a kind of peace he’d never known before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to write a continuation of this and then I did. I've also got a sequel fic planned, so I've made this the first in a series. I've been really blown away by the response to this fic and to everyone who's read it and/or left feedback/kudos, I can't thank you enough. You're all awesome. I hope you enjoy part 2!

Luke and Ahsoka ventured deeper into the castle, and with each step they took, Luke could feel the darkness growing stronger. There was something else, though. Something… brighter. 

“I sense conflict in this place,” Ahsoka mused, as if her thoughts were mirroring his own. 

“I sense it too. It’s like Light and Dark are at war here. Patches of compassion seem to push through the anger and hate.” 

“Strange…” Ahsoka glanced at him, giving him a knowing look. “But you’ve inherited Master Kenobi’s perceptiveness, I see.” 

Luke laughed, and blushed slightly. “Ben was a good teacher, and I learned what I could, but…” His voice turned sad. “I wish I could have spent more time with him.”

“Obi-Wan was like a father to me.” Ahsoka smiled, almost to herself. “He was wise, kind, and powerful. He and your father used to bicker all the time-- I lost count of how many times I had to step in between them.” She chuckled softly as she spoke.

They pressed on through the castle, the long hallways seemingly endless. Luke could feel the Force guiding him forward, though, and he didn’t have any doubt they were moving in the right direction. 

“Tell me more about my father?” His voice pitched upwards at the end of the question, his tone hopeful.

“He was the greatest Jedi I’ve ever known.” Ahsoka had a wistful look in her eyes. “He was strong, brave, compassionate… He was the best of us. He was like the older brother I never knew I wanted.” Ahsoka laughed. “There were times he drove me crazy-- Obi-Wan too. But we loved him anyway. And he loved his friends, more than he probably should have. He was willing to do anything for them.” 

Luke took a breath, suddenly reminded of something. “And… did you know my mother? Padmé Amidala?”

Ahsoka’s smile grew wider, if possible, and she nodded. “I did. She was one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. She was one of the most powerful senators in the Old Republic, and she was fearless. She would have made a great Jedi. She definitely kept Anakin on his toes.” 

Luke chuckled softly, picturing Leia: a politician in one breath, and a warrior in the next. “I can see where Leia gets it from.” Ahsoka raised her eyebrow at him, a question in her eyes. “Leia Organa. My sister.” 

Ahsoka stopped, an astonished look on her face. “Your sister? But… I knew Bail Organa. I knew of his daughter… He never said--” 

“We’re twins-- Leia and me. Obi-Wan said we were separated from each other at birth so my father wouldn’t find us. Leia was raised on Alderaan, and I grew up on Tatooine.” 

Ahsoka still looked surprised, but less so. “I suppose I should have guessed. I met Leia once, when she was a young girl. I felt… _something_ familiar about her, something I couldn’t place. And I suppose any child of Padmé’s was always destined to go into politics." 

They kept walking, eventually coming to a large room deep within the castle. There was a large, circular chamber in the middle, filled with wires and machinery that surrounded a chair in the center. _It was almost like…_

“A bacta tank,” Ahsoka said, confused. 

“Anakin wore that armor as a life support system,” Luke said, circling the room. “When he… at the end, saving me fried his suit and killed him. He must have used the bacta whenever he wanted to take the suit off.” 

There wasn’t much to see. The room was relatively bare, aside from the structure in the middle. Luke sighed. He could feel the Force coalescing in this room, and he knew it guided him here, but he couldn’t understand _why._ Was it just so he could see where his father lived? There had to be something more to it-- he could _feel_ it. He closed his eyes, reaching out to the Force, asking it a silent question. _Tell me. Why did you bring me here?_ The Force did not respond, leaving his question hanging in the air until--

“Luke. Come look at this.” He opened his eyes to see Ahsoka standing at the other end of the room, standing in front of a computer console of some kind. He walked over, eyeing the screen in front of them. There was a list of dates on it, coupled with random words and notes that didn’t make sense to him. 

“What is this?” 

“I think… I think it’s a journal of some kind.” Ahsoka looked just as surprised as Luke felt. _This_ must have been why the Force guided him here. Could this be his father’s? “I sense… the Force is pulling us towards this somehow. I wonder if this could be the answer you seek.” 

“Let me?” Ahsoka obligingly moved out of the way so that Luke could stand in front of the console. He scrolled through the list of dates almost aimlessly. “Where do we start? There’s so much here…” Ahsoka put a hand on his shoulder. 

“Your instincts have gotten you this far, Luke. Trust them. Let the Force be your guide.” 

Luke sighed, relaxing his body and looking inward. The Force hadn’t steered him wrong thus far, and he reached out to it again, letting it guide his hands as he scrolled through the data entries. Further and further he scrolled, until--

“There.” He settled on one particular entry, dated almost 20 years before, pulling it up as Ahsoka stood over his shoulder. 

“ _Padmé… Padmé’s dead. My master said I_ killed _her in my anger, but I… I couldn’t have. I loved her-- I betrayed everyone,_ everyone _to save her. I just wanted her to be safe. I’m so_ angry _now, all the time, my hatred washing away everything else. My master told me he would be able to save her, that I needed to join the Sith to grow more powerful, but she’s dead anyway. The Jedi are gone. Obi-Wan…_ betrayed _me_.” Luke looked at Ahsoka, her shocked expression mirroring his own.

 _I’m so confused now, so scared and angry, but so_ powerful. _I’m a monster. But… my Master trusts me. He saved me, kept me alive when Obi-Wan tried to kill me. And he’s made me second in command of this new Empire. Darth Vader must grow stronger, powerful enough to never fail again. Powerful enough to defeat any remaining Jedi and take my revenge for the Council’s betrayal. Anakin Skywalker is_ dead. _He died with the Republic, and Vader cannot let Palpatine see his weakness.”_

The file ended there, and Luke’s eyes were shining when they met Ahsoka’s. “It was for love…” Ahsoka’s voice was a mixture of awestruck and horrified. Luke pulled up another file. 

“ _I’ve discovered evidence that the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker managed to survive.”_ Luke felt Ahsoka tense up beside him. _“She is still strong with the Force. Skywalker trained her well… too well.”_ Luke could hear a hint of something that sounded like pride in his father’s robotic voice. “ _I thought Ahsoka dead with the rest of the Jedi, but I should have known she would find a way to outwit the Empire. Perhaps… perhaps, if I found her, if I could talk to her, she could…”_ Vader’s voice trailed off, and it was a moment before he spoke again. 

“ _Perhaps it’s not too late…”_ Vader’s voice sounded almost _small,_ and Luke could see that the tears in Ahsoka’s eyes had begun to fall. Vader sighed before speaking again. “ _No. My master has ordered me to destroy her, and that is what I will do. Defeating Skywalker’s apprentice will put an end to the last vestiges of his legacy. It will complete Darth Vader’s ascendancy, and put an end to these feelings of confusion. There is no going back to how things were.”_

Luke put a hand on Ahsoka’s shoulder. He could feel her shaking slightly, and his own legs weren’t terribly steady. This was something so much more _personal_ than anything he’d ever expected to find of Vader’s. He went back to the console, pulling up one last data file. This one was only dated a couple of years prior. 

Vader’s robotic breathing filled the room, but it was a moment before he began to speak. Luke thought he could detect a slight hitch in his breathing, almost as if… almost akin to a _sob._

“ _I find myself… conflicted, for the first time in a long while. I have discovered that the son of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker_ survived, _and that he has been trained as a Jedi. My… my_ son _is alive. I have put my Jedi past behind me for so long, but I feel the Light pulling at my senses. My connection to the Dark Side has been threatened, for the first time in a long time, and I worry that my master will sense I am out of balance. I must work to control these feelings, but they threaten everything I have built here._

_“I must obey my master. I must not fail. But I cannot deny that the thought of my son is awakening feelings I have not felt since the Clone Wars. I cannot allow him to cloud my judgement, but I wonder if, perhaps, the future might be changed.”_

Now Luke’s eyes were shining, tears spilling over. He and Ahsoka looked at each other as the recording finished, and Luke took a breath. _There was good in him, even then. He fought so hard to come back._ “We shouldn’t leave this here, in this dark place.” Luke keyed in a command to the console, transferring the files to a data disk. A moment later, the drive ejected from the panel, and Luke shoved it in his pocket. “This was his personal log. Separate from even the _Emperor_.” 

Ahsoka nodded, staring at him for a moment before she spoke. “He would want you to have it. You came all this way to find answers.” 

“I did. But I never _dreamed_ … I didn’t think I would find something like this.” 

Ahsoka smiled. “The Force always has a way of surprising us.” They made their way back to the front of the bacta chamber, glancing back once before closing the door behind them. As they walked back towards the front of the fortress, Luke pulled the data file out of his pocket. He glanced down at it briefly with a sigh, before turning to look at Ahsoka. 

“Will you… will you come back to Coruscant with me? I know Leia would love to meet you-see you again, I mean. And… there’s so much I still want to learn from you, about the war, the Force, the Jedi…” His eyes were full of hope, and as he saw her brow furrow, he desperately hoped she would say yes. Obi-Wan and Yoda had both died before he could learn all he wanted to from them, and he didn’t want to lose the last connection he had to his father and the Jedi of old. 

Ahsoka looked at him, her eyes watching him intently before nodding. She put a hand on his shoulder again. “I will.” Her voice was serious, but she suddenly smiled again. There was a sparkle in her eyes as she spoke again. “Your father would never forgive me if I didn’t keep his kids out of trouble,” she laughed. 

They made their way outside, the heat of Mustafar’s lava hitting Luke full in the face. He could see R2 off in the distance, still with his X-Wing. “Where’s your ship?” 

Ahsoka jerked her head somewhere to the west. “Nearby. I’ll follow your lead-- we’ll see if you’re as good a pilot as Anakin was.” She smirked at him. 

Luke laughed, before making his way back towards the X-wing. He’d been searching for answers for months, and now that he’d found what he was searching for, he felt more at peace than he had in a long time. He knew Leia and Han were waiting for him back on Coruscant, and even though he bristled at being back in the political spotlight, he was excited. Ahsoka agreed to come with him, to stay and help him walk the Jedi path, and he couldn’t help but be optimistic about what the future held. 

As his ship took flight, leaving Mustafar armed with his father’s legacy, Luke Skywalker couldn’t help but take one look back at Vader’s castle. _The Force will be with you, father. Always._

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was incredibly fun to write, and I'm excited to write the sequel at some point. Huge thank you to everyone who left feedback or kudos, and to anyone who has bothered to click on this. Y'all are awesome. <3


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